London - After braving the leaky boats of the
Mediterranean, many migrants to Europe make another dangerous crossing, risking
their lives hidden inside or under the wheels of lorries to try to reach
Britain.
Meron, an Eritrean refugee, was just 15 when he
spent a fortnight last September in the French port of Calais waiting to cross
over to Dover.
He and two friends tried up to 10 times a day to
get on a lorry. Finally, they found one with just enough space for one person
to squeeze inside.
As the youngest, Meron's friends made him go in –
they would follow later.
He lay motionless for hours in a gap between the
boxes and the lorry roof, holding his breath in the end-of-summer heat when
guards checked the vehicle.
"My heart was breaking," he told AFP in a
cafe in south London, near where he is now living with a foster family after
being granted asylum.
"I was feeling so hot, there wasn't any room
to move, I was lying down. I wasn't sure that I would get to UK."
When the lorry stopped and he looked out to find
himself in London, he said: "I felt like I was born for a second
time."
‘My mother would cry’
There were 30 000 recorded attempts to cross the
Channel in the 10 months to January – around 100 a day and almost double the
number for the previous year, official data shows.
The Guardian newspaper reported that 15 migrants
died attempting to make the journey last year.
Calais Migrant Solidarity, a campaign group, listed
17 deaths including a Sudanese man reportedly crushed under the wheels of a
truck he was clinging to on the M25 motorway around London in December.
It is unclear how many migrants do make it across
illegally but Britain in 2013 deported 935 migrants to other European Union
countries where they first made their asylum requests.
Many of those who attempt the journey are refugees
seeking asylum in Britain, which has the fifth largest number of applications
in the EU, with a recent surge in new arrivals from Eritrea and Syria.
Lorry drivers have complained about confrontations
with would-be stowaways. The Freight Transport Association complains that
drivers face regular and sometimes serious confrontations.
"We completely understand the frustration of
drivers who feel they are being used as scapegoats in what is a desperate
situation," Natalie Chapman from the FTA said of a protest organised on
behalf of drivers last year.
The British and French governments have promised to
boost security at Calais but the problem is part of a wider issue of how to
respond to the surge of migrants coming into the EU across the Mediterranean.
The question is causing political tensions, with
Britain resisting proposals for the bloc to take in more refugees.
Meron's Channel crossing was the culmination of a
four-month journey which began when he fled Eritrea and the prospect of a
lifetime of military service.
He and his friends paid people traffickers to take
them across the Sahara to Libya, where they boarded a packed boat to Italy and
almost sank, before being rescued.
At each stage, the only objective was to stay
alive, and they only decided to try Britain on the advice of some fellow
Eritreans in Italy.
"If I knew that the journey was like this, I
wouldn't do it," said Meron, indistinguishable from any normal teenager in
black jeans, a long-sleeved black t-shirt and trainers.
He has lied to his mother back home about how hard
it was, saying simply: "She would cry."
‘The only choice’
Mohammed, a 33-year-old English teacher from
northern Syria, knew he wanted to go to Britain when he left last June in fear
of his life – but had no idea what awaited him.
He too crossed the Mediterranean on a dangerously
overcrowded boat, before taking the train to Calais, where he spent four months
sleeping rough and trying every day to get on a lorry.
In the end, he crossed by climbing between the
wheels of a truck and clinging on to the axle.
"It was very dangerous. But it's the only
choice," he told AFP by telephone from his home in central England, where
he is waiting for a decision on his asylum application.
If granted asylum, he will be able to start work as
a teacher and send for his wife who remains back in Syria – although he would
rather have stayed at home.
"Nobody will be happy to leave his homeland,
his country. But sometimes you are forced to leave".
